Find Lawyers in British Columbia, Canada for Trusts and Estates
Practice Area Overview
Wealth accumulation, preservation, and enjoyment may include the use of Trusts or corporate structures to split income or pass future growth to the next generation while preserving a client’s access to income and capital for financial security and personal philanthropy during their lifetime. Succession of wealth involves proper Will planning for the transfer of assets to surviving family members. This may include the administration of assets through testamentary Trusts to avoid premature vesting, or to take advantage of income splitting and asset protection opportunities, and the sharing of family wealth with favourite charities in a tax efficient manner. Trusts established during a client's lifetime, or through their Will, also may be of value when planning for the equitable distribution of assets among members of blended families or the care of minors and incapable adults, and to encourage the responsible transmission of wealth.
Trust and Estate administration services include assisting the personal representative to obtain Probate of a Will, or Letters of Administration if no Will is found, and advising as necessary on administrative responsibilities. This includes advice concerning the gathering of assets, payment of liabilities, the establishment of any trusts designated by the terms of a Will, and communicating with beneficiaries regarding accounting and distribution matters. It may include advice to individual or corporate executors and trustees relating to the administration of ongoing trusts or with regard to the interpretation and implementation of the trust terms. Trust and Estate lawyers will have the ability to advise and represent personal representatives, or estate beneficiaries, in all aspects of estate administration, and in the event a dispute arises, they will assist in resolving contentious matters.
Navigating legal matters involving the death or incapacity of a loved one is an emotionally-charged experience, which many clients find difficult. For a decade, clients have entrusted Gordon to guide them through their estates and trusts disputes with practical advice, sound strategy, and unwavering support throughout the process. Whether client matters are ultimately resolved through negotiations or in the courtroom, Gordon knows that preparation and positioning from the outset are critical ...
Mediation gives people more control over the outcome of their disputes and provides privacy over what are often highly sensitive issues for the parties involved. Many people do not fully realize the lack of control one faces at trial nor do people understand the truly public nature of the courthouse. As a mediator, Diane helps clients overcome legal challenges in a fair and efficient manner. She manages emotions and expectations, and, by engaging in an active risk analysis, she helps to achie...
Jeff's practice is dedicated to estate planning, estate administration, trusts, charities and not-for-profits. Jeff advises clients on all aspects of estate administration and estate planning. Jeff counsels executors and trustees on administering estates and trusts and helps beneficiaries understand their rights. Jeff has extensive experience in developing tailored estate plans and drafting wills, powers of attorney, representation agreements, trusts and related planning documents. Jeff is a ...
Michael works exclusively with the social impact sector, advising charities, not-for-profit organizations, associations, professional bodies, clubs, and social enterprises. With 15 years’ experience, Michael advises sector organizations on a variety of tax and legal matters: Creation: Incorporation and structuring, charity registration applications, organizational start-up. Tax Compliance: Obligations under the Income Tax Act, including charitable purposes and activities, granting, fund...
For over 38 years, Cathie Brayley has worked with clients through all types of tax complexities, including Canada Revenue Agency audits and appeals, buying and selling businesses, structuring international and domestic investments, representation and warranty insurance, tax insurance as well as personal tax and estate planning. Her aptitude for creative and strategic thinking, combined with her practical approach are complimented by her significant experience in commercial transactions. For C...
Tara Britnell is the Co-Chair of the Estate and Trust Litigation department. She assists clients with the complete range of complex and challenging estate and trust cases, including undue influence and capacity claims, adult guardianship, construction and variation of wills and trusts, contentious estate administrations, and the identification and prevention of elder abuse. Tara’s clients include executors, trustees, beneficiaries, people disappointed in a Will and those concerned about...
Riley Burr's practice largely focuses on commercial tax work. Riley also advises clients on GST, PST and property transfer tax issues in the corporate, charitable and real estate sectors, both in structuring designed to minimize taxes as well as in handling administrative appeals, ruling requests and voluntary disclosures relating to such taxes. Riley also works with high-net-worth individuals with significant private company interests in a wide variety of industries to structure their affair...
Annie Chen is a wills, estates, trusts and corporate lawyer in Vancouver advising clients on wealth management, estate planning and personal and corporate tax planning. Annie works collaboratively with clients and their advisors and focuses on providing creative, practical and cost-effective personal planning and corporate planning structures to meet clients’ planning/succession needs and objectives while minimizing risks and taxes. A trusted advisor to personal and corporate clients, i...
Eric Clavier is a trusts and estate litigation lawyer in Fasken’s Vancouver office, assisting clients with resolving contentious matters related to wills, trusts, undue influence and incapacity claims, committeeship applications, unjust enrichment claims, breach of fiduciary duties cases, abuse of powers of attorney claims, breach of trust claims, and passing of accounts. Providing innovative solutions to disputes arising from estate planning, wills, trusts and personal documents, Eric&...
As the managing partner of one of Western Canada’s largest law firms, Emily’s leadership and strategic vision ensures that Clark Wilson delivers excellent service to our clients across Canada and around the globe. She is consistently recognized by her peers across the country as a Best Lawyer® in Canada for Trusts and Estates, and is a repeatedly recommended lawyer by Lexpert. Emily has been lead litigation counsel on cases at all levels of Court. She has acted as counsel in c...
Stephanie is a tax and estate planning lawyer in the Tax and Private Wealth Group at Farris. Since her call to the bar in 2004, Stephanie has practised in the areas of taxation, wealth management, and trust and estate planning. Stephanie creates tax-effective estate plans and corporate structures for families and high-net-worth individuals, including wills, estate freezes, all types of trusts and corporate reorganizations. She also assists not-for-profit and charitable organizations in respec...
Dwight Dee, TEP, has a business law and estates and trusts practice with a focus on private client services. Dwight works with individuals and families in the areas of estate and incapacity planning, trusts, succession planning, and elder law matters. Dwight also has extensive experience in all aspects of business law. Dwight regularly assists clients with the preparation of wills, enduring powers of attorneys, family trusts, alter ego and joint spousal trusts, and healthcare representation a...
Emma Ferguson is a member of our Wills, Estates + Trusts Practice Group. Emma has a broad wills, estates and trusts practice. She advises clients on all aspects of estate and incapacity planning, including wills, alter ego, joint partner and family trusts, powers of attorney and healthcare representation agreements. Emma has experience assisting clients with disabilities or their family members with planning to protect government disability benefits and advises clients on adult guardianship m...
Sarah Fitzpatrick’s practice focuses on the areas of charities and not-for-profits. She provides general advice to these clients, to assist them in carrying out their missions and mandates. Sarah counsels charities and not-for-profit clients on governance matters, tax and regulatory compliance, social enterprise and gift planning. She also assists clients with general corporate legal matters including major business contracts, transactions and restructuring. Sarah's practice is recogniz...
Andrea is a lawyer in the Private Wealth Group at Farris LLP. She focuses her practice on assisting clients with sophisticated estate and trust planning and administration. She provides succession planning advice and works with clients to craft trust documents, wills and testamentary instruments, powers of attorney and representation agreements which respond to their specific needs. Andrea also provides services to executors and trustees. Andrea is a frequent speaker for a wide variety of gro...
As the principal of Heritage Law , Nicole Garton, TEP is a lawyer, mediator and parenting coordinator practicing in the areas of wills and estates and family law. As President of Heritage Trust , Nicole leads a regulated financial institution offering executor, trustee, power of attorney, escrow and multi-family office services on behalf of BC resident clients. Nicole is the Past Chair of the Canadian Bar Association Wills and Trusts Subsection (Vancouver). Nicole is a member the Society of E...
Mary Hamilton, K.C. is a Partner in the firm’s Wills, Estates + Trusts and Charities + Non-Profit Practice Groups. Mary has extensive experience in matters relating to wills, trusts and estate administration. She has held senior positions with various wills, estates and trusts groups in Vancouver and was named Vancouver Trusts and Estates “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers ® in Canada in 2011, 2017 and 2021. Mary has over 30 years of experience advising clients about t...
Stephen is a Vancouver-based lawyer who specializes in charities law and estate planning. Stephen provides advice and services to all clients – charities, not-for-profit organizations, foundations, boards, schools, social entrepreneurs, individuals, families, and business owners – in the following areas: Charities Law: Incorporation, Charitable Registration, Board Governance, Compliance and Tax, and Gift Planning. Estate Planning: Wills, Incapacity Planning, Trusts, Business Succe...
Kirsten Jenkins' practice focuses on advising individuals and families regarding estate planning, trusts, business succession and incapacity matters. She works with clients and their advisors to develop and implement comprehensive and tailored estate plans that meet each family’s unique circumstances and needs. Ms. Jenkins also advises individuals and financial institutions on estate and trust administration. This includes applications for grants of probate and administration, interpret...
Parveen is a tax, trusts and estate planning lawyer advising clients on personal and corporate taxation, estate planning, wealth management and trust-related matters. Parveen’s practice includes assisting with, and advising on: tax aspects of domestic corporate reorganizations and other corporate and commercial transactions, the structuring and implementation of purchases and sales of businesses, divisive reorganizations and transactions involving multiple entities (including partnershi...
Catherine practices in estate and trust planning, as well as estate administration. She focuses on personal estate and business succession planning and advises on matters such as: wealth preservation, probate minimization and incapacity planning. Catherine’s background in tax also equips her to navigate various income tax and regional real estate tax issues and to provide comprehensive solutions that complement her extensive background in estates and corporate law. She works with accoun...
Kimberly Kuntz represents executors, trustees and beneficiaries in a variety of estate- and trust-related disputes, including wills validity and wills variation claims. She also assists clients in disputes involving interpreting wills and trust instruments, matters involving suspected undue influence or incapacity of testators and settlors of trusts, applications for committeeship of incapacitated adults, and contested disputes involving trust and estate accounts. In her growing elder law pra...
Vancouver is fast becoming an international city, drawing people from all over the world. Years ago, Lauren moved here from China, where she was born, raised and educated. Today, she is one of just a few English-fluent and native-Chinese litigators practicing within a major law firm in Vancouver. Her cross-cultural background allows her to assist a wide range of clients across a variety of demographics as Vancouver grows more each day into a global hub. After her first university degree in Ch...
Helen Low, KC is the leader of Fasken’s Wills, Trusts, Estates and Charities Group in BC. She assists clients with contentious disputes regarding wills, trusts, inheritances, powers of attorneys and elderly and incapable family members, as well as estate planning for both simple and complex estates with a goal to avoid post-death disputes. She has been litigation counsel on a broad range of cases, including: challenges to estate plans; variation of wills and trusts; abuse of powers of a...
William is an Associate Counsel with Harper Grey and chair of our Wills & Estates Group. William is also a member of our Business Law and Estate Litigation Groups. William focuses his practice on helping clients set up wills, trusts and use other tools that help them preserve wealth and transfer it to their beneficiaries in the way they want. At the same time, he advises them regarding the laws that could impact on what they want to do. He carefully considers the entire estate including f...
Chris, a Partner in the Business Law Group at Watson Goepel, has been recognized in the 2025 Best Lawyers awards for his exceptional work in Trusts and Estates. His extensive practice includes all aspects of estate planning, such as probate and administration applications, wills, powers of attorney, representation agreements, and committee ship applications. Chris is also adept at establishing and managing various types of trusts, including alter ego trusts, joint spousal trusts, and disabili...
Rebecca has a broad range of experience in civil litigation matters including contractual disputes, construction disputes, insolvency and restructuring matters, estate and trust disputes and international trade matters. She is recognized by The Best Lawyers in Canada for both corporate & commercial litigation and insolvency & financial restructuring law. She is also recognized by Benchmark Litigation Canada as a "Future Star". She has experience in conducting trials, appeals, mediatio...
Amy acts as litigation counsel on highly complex estate and trust matters, and in contested committeeship matters. She is also a mediator, assisting other counsel and parties in resolving all manner of estate and trust litigation. Amy’s strong legal skills are balanced with her empathetic but practical approach to what are oftentimes highly emotionally charged files. She excels at identifying opportunities and obtaining results for our clients. Amy’s clients include: Executors &am...
Zachary is a full-service solicitor and litigator, practicing in the areas of Wills, Estates & Trusts; Charities and Not-for-Profits; and Elder/Adult Guardianship Law. Zachary assists clients in preparing estate and incapacity plans and in the administration of estates of deceased individuals. His estate planning clients range from young professionals looking to establish their first foundational estate plan, to retired individuals looking to ensure that their estate plans are probate fee...
Alison’s practice is focused on wealth management, estate planning, trusts, and personal and corporate tax planning. She works with high-net-worth individuals, families and owner-managers to develop customized strategies to manage and transfer wealth. Alison works on matters such as: Basic estate and incapacity planning (wills, powers of attorneys and health care representation agreements) Complex estate plans involving tax-planned wills, multiple wills, alter ego and joint partner trus...
Estate planning and administration can often put individuals in positions where they are required to make difficult decisions. Michael is passionate about helping individuals work through their options by simplifying complex legal principles to ensure that the decisions they do make are well-informed ones. Michael can also analyze all sides of a sensitive situation to identify effective options for advancing our clients’ interests. Services Trusts Wills Business succession Estate and Tr...
Rose’s deep and abiding care for her clients and their families is a hallmark of her practice. Rose is brings more than 15 years of experience to her practice, which is primarily focused on assisting families and businesses with their planning, succession and reorganization, estate, and business needs. She strives to make life’s inevitabilities, death and taxes, less daunting a topic for clients while being alert to the complications these raise from a legal, family, tax, probate ...
Kelsey Sherriff has a general commercial litigation practice with a focus on class actions and estate and trust litigation. Kelsey also has experience in administrative and regulatory health law. Kelsey acts as defence counsel in a wide variety of class actions including environmental, products liability and price fixing cases. In her estate litigation practice, Kelsey acts for executors on probate matters and for individuals and charities on issues concerning the validity of wills and variat...
Jonah is a cross-border tax and estate planning lawyer. His tax practice is focused on assisting clients with international tax issues, including US-Canada cross border matters and questions regarding residency and Treaty benefits. Additionally, Jonah brings his tax-driven approach to estate planning, ensuring that future generations’ inheritances are well optimized. Whether estates are purely domestic or have a cross border component, Jonah aims to work clients to identify and anticipa...
Amanda provides advice in the areas of wealth management, estate planning, charity, and not-for-profit law. She advises clients on wills, trusts, powers of attorney, family business succession planning, and corporate re-organizations. Amanda also advises on the establishment, tax compliance, governance, and regulation of charities and not-for- profit organizations. She also assists financial institutions with issues pertaining to administering estate assets, registered and non-registered acco...
Polly is a partner practicing in the areas of Estates & Trusts and Elder Law. She regularly assists clients in resolving contentious estate, trust, and elder law issues involving significant and emotional personal matters, and with estate and incapacity planning to provide certainty and peace of mind for the future. She has appeared before the Courts in British Columbia and before the Supreme Court of Canada. Polly excels in providing thorough and detailed analysis of complex legal issues...
David Thompson received a B.Comm (1979) and LLB (1983) from the University of British Columbia. He was called to the bar in 1984 and has practiced exclusively in taxation matters since 1985. David is a registered trust and estate practitioner certified by the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. David was a governor of the Canadian Tax Foundation. David is noted as a leading Canadian tax lawyer based on peer-review ratings in Lexpert and in Martindale Hubell. He is noted as a leading Ca...
Ingrid Tsui is a Partner at the firm and a member of the Corporate/Commercial Practice Group. Ingrid works as general counsel to a number of local and international businesses on a wide variety of their legal needs, from startup, to operations and growth and ultimately to sale. She also regularly advises on the implementation of corporate reorganization and restructuring. Ingrid is the leader of our Wills, Estates + Trusts Practice Group. She assists individuals in their unique estate plannin...
Growing up working Saturdays and summers in the small business his father started, Richard experienced firsthand the things that are needed to keep a business going. Early mornings. Hard work. Keeping customers happy. Today, with a legal practice focused on providing tax, trust and estate advice, Richard still draws on those early lessons, recognizing that he is dealing with people’s livelihoods and families. He works with our clients to define their family, business and tax objectives ...
As our most senior estate and trust litigator, Mark gives strategic direction to some of the most complex estate files, representing both individual and institutional clients, including personal Executors and Trustees, trust companies, non-profit organizations, charities and committees. Mark excels at moving files through the “litigation pipeline” with perseverance based on an extensive knowledge of the law and hard-fought experience. Services Wills variation claims Passing of Exe...
Laura West is engaged in a general practice in the areas of wealth management, estates, trusts, charity and not-for-profit law. She advises clients on wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare representation agreements, charitable giving, family business succession planning, corporate re-organizations and estate administration, as well as the establishment, governance and regulation of charities and non-profit organizations. Ms. West has taught wills and estate planning at the University ...
Estate and will planning is intensely personal and meaningful—it culminates into a person’s lasting legacy. However, it is often difficult to find the time and resources to make those important decisions. Geoffrey supports our clients with this burden and ensures that their estate goals are implemented in ways that protect wealth and avoid costs and complications. Work Highlights Successful BC business family Implemented an estate plan that ensures a tax- and cost-efficient transf...
Amanda Winters is a Partner in our Family and Estate Litigation groups. She represents clients in both family and estate matters, and has a particular interest in matters where these two areas of law intersect. Amanda takes a results-oriented approach to litigation, including negotiating or mediating settlements when in her clients’ interests. She has represented clients at all levels of court in British Columbia, as well as courts in other Canadian jurisdictions. Amanda appears frequen...
Martina Zanetti is a lawyer on our private wealth, trusts and estates team. Her practice focuses on estate planning, estate administration, and incapacity matters. Martina assists clients with preparing wills, powers of attorney and healthcare representation agreements, as well as the documentation required to establish and fund discretionary family trusts, alter ego trusts, joint partner trusts and other trust structures. She possesses a strong base in family law, which she utilizes to assis...
With a deep understanding of relationship dynamics and a keen eye for detail, Sunny excels at anticipating the issues that impact the negotiation or the litigation of our clients’ matters in estates and trusts, fraud and asset recovery. He is adept at assessing situations from all angles and develops strategies to address our clients’ needs and, ultimately, protect their rights. Sunny’s role is to support clients by providing informed legal knowledge and pragmatic solutions ...
Aubrie Girou is a Partner and a member of Alexander Holburn's Wills, Estates + Trusts Practice Group. Aubrie practices exclusively in the area of wills, estates + trusts, and incapacity and maintains both a solicitor’s and litigation practice. She assists clients with all aspects of contentious disputes – simple and complex – that can arise on death or incapacity including wills variation, unjust enrichment, constructive or resulting trusts, breach of fiduciary duties, commi...
Nikki Hildebrand is a member of our private wealth, trusts and estates team. She assists clients with a variety of matters, including estate planning, trusts, incapacity planning and estate administration. Ms. Hildebrand was called to the bar in 2015 after summering and articling with us. During law school she was an active volunteer with Pro Bono Students Canada, and before law school worked as a manager in a large BC corporation.
Alexander has an aptitude for structuring creative solutions that accomplish the best results for his clients. His experience in various areas of litigation has also given him the ability to successfully navigate the multifaceted and complex nature of estate litigation files. Alexander has particular expertise in matters relating to estates, trusts, and fiduciary and capacity-related proceedings. He has successfully represented individuals, institutions, and charitable organizations in this a...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.